Annual Report 2022

Take our Next Gen programme, for example: in 2022, we carried out surveys on the wishes and needs of the next generation of investors – in other words, the children of our clients. The feedback was that they’re looking for education in wealth management and a chance to meet other people in the same situation. So in 2023, we’ll be launching a series of master classes on topics like how to get started on investing, how to make sustainable investments, and how to handle money and assets in a smart way.

We’ve also made improvements to our client communications. In our internal client management system, we’ve added extra filters so that it’s now possible for bankers to select a specific group of clients and send them more relevant content. For instance, if the banker selects “has children”, they can then send a blog post or podcast about giving endowments to children only to the clients who actually have kids. And this leads to greater client satisfaction.

Daniëlle van Leest – Commercial Director, Hilversum Office

As a queer individual, I didn’t expect that I’d be able to bring my whole self to work – especially at a centuries-old wealth manager. But at Van Lanschot Kempen, I feel truly safe to do so. Even at the highest level of the company, there’s space for personal stories and recognition for every individual. For example, our Chief Risk Officer, Wendy Winkelhuijzen, is the official sponsor of our LGBTQ+ Committee, and in 2022 she signed Workplace Pride’s Declaration of Amsterdam on behalf of our company.

With our clients, too, we’re working on the most inclusive ways to address people. Every day, I see all the exceptions we’re willing to make for our colleagues, the support we give each other in our ideas, the space we give one another to grow in our own ways. Van Lanschot Kempen’s personal approach makes me feel very lucky to work here and proud to call this company my employer.

Mike van de Langenberg – Inclusion & Diversity Specialist

I started at Van Lanschot Kempen as an intern doing my thesis: I was interviewing bankers about their adoption of digital tools and, from that, I was able to create various dashboards from scratch. The company really gave me the opportunity to take chances, try new approaches and iterate as I went along.

That entrepreneurial spirit is important to me both personally and professionally. We’re a very small, new team with lots of freedom to innovate. One example in 2022 was the “5Miles” micro-learning platform, which allows colleagues to learn in five minutes every day with just one challenge. Initially, the challenges were all based around Microsoft Office programs, but we’ve now created a specific course for our bankers to learn how to use our client-focused tools.

We’re also analysing the correlation between digital adoption by bankers and client satisfaction, to see whether clients who have more digital contact points available to them are happier with our service. There’s lots to learn from data analytics!

Oumaima Charkaoui – Advanced Analytics Specialist & Scrum Master

A large reason is the personal relationships I get to build with my clients. Several factors go into these: firstly, we get to know each other over the long term, which is quite unique. Secondly, we have very direct communication: all my clients have my mobile number, so they can get through to me any time, and I have plenty of face-to-face meetings with them as well. And lastly, we have lots of personal conversations: we generally start off talking about money, but behind that there are always wishes, desires and fears.

The best conversations happen when the laptop stays in its bag and the word “investing” isn’t even mentioned. An entrepreneur who’s selling their company might not primarily be looking for investment advice at all. They might be struggling with completely different issues: what does this new phase of life mean to them personally, and to their partner and children?

What makes my job so special is coming into contact with my clients’ dreams and concerns – those moments when we connect not from banker to client but from person to person – and then translating those into solutions that are in the clients’ best interests.

Jacco Vreugdenhil – Private Banker

We’re in touch with a network of companies and investors in those sectors on an ongoing basis; we organise and participate in industry forums; and we’re continuously learning and updating our knowledge to stay relevant for our clients.

In 2022, we were able to successfully combine the expertise of two Corporate Finance teams – Tech & FinTech and Debt Advisory – in order to help one of our fintech clients secure venture debt funding. Our in-depth analysis of the company, including its product and underlying technology, business model and distribution strategy, allowed us to get a feel for its positioning and future prospects. Using our international network and the expertise of our debt specialists, we were able to find an appropriate funding partner for the client and together identify a suitable structure.

The success of the deal shows how being experts in our core sectors and products means we can join forces to achieve the best results for our clients.

Maria Popova – Vice President Corporate Finance, Investment Banking

I joined the company in 2020 in the midst of the pandemic, and while in some ways that was a tough time, I was impressed by the laser focus of the UK team to grow and be successful. As global markets were reeling from significant falls, we saw a chance to invest in opportunistic credit. Together with our Amsterdam colleagues, we recognised this as a once-in-a-decade opportunity to invest in that asset class, and delivered strong performance for our clients. Fast forward to 2022 with high inflation and fears of recession, and that opportunity has come around again. And because of the rigorous work we’ve done in the past, we’re well set to take advantage of the situation and dynamically allocate to benefit our clients.

I believe we’re unique as a UK fiduciary manager, supported by a pan-European wealth manager. This allows us to be truly entrepreneurial. We understand alternative perspectives on the investment world, both geographically and by investor type. And we have diverse thinking to support and benefit our clients. This breadth of experience really informs our ability to innovate.

Arif Saad – Co-head of Investment Strategy, UK

And perhaps that’s become a theme of my work as an Agile Coach here. Agile is a well-known methodology in the IT world, but it’s about more than just improving processes. It all starts with people: their curiosity to discover client needs, their willingness to work together on solutions, their trust in each other, their courage to experiment and learn together. And that’s relevant in every part of the business – not just in IT.

In 2022, the HR department asked me to help them with their way of working. I’d done some work with non-IT teams before but never with HR. Yet their eagerness to try, coupled with the company culture that encourages experimentation, made me think: why not? Let’s jump! I encouraged them to look at their processes through a new lens, to experiment and share their learnings with each other. I’m really proud of the insights they’ve gained and improvements they’ve made. More to come, I’m sure.

Liliia Malysh – Agile Coach

To put that in financial terms, we have one equities strategy with about 50 stocks, and we have one bonds strategy. All our clients’ assets fall into three funds, and as managing partners in the firm, we’re investors in those funds, too. This has a couple of major benefits for our clients. Firstly, their interests are aligned with our own: when they’re happy, we’re happy, and vice versa. And secondly, we make things very simple and efficient.

For us, being decisive means choosing an investment solution that’s the best for our clients and at the same time being efficient and giving them great service. We saw that the partnership with Van Lanschot Kempen was going well, so in December 2022 we decided to step up a gear to realise gains in efficiency and service more quickly. It’s all about playing to your strengths, doing your best, taking a decision and then really going for it.

Frederic van Doosselaere – Managing Partner, Mercier Vanderlinden, Belgium

For example, in collaboration with various experts, we design our in-house compliance training and make sure new joiners have all the necessary compliance information during their onboarding. We’re often asked for advice on compliance topics by different parts of the business or by the Management Board, and it’s our job to take a clear stance and build evidence for that.

What’s unique about Van Lanschot Kempen is its relatively small size compared with peers: we serve specific client segments and have short lines of communication between the various departments, so there’s not a lot of hierarchy. There’s also plenty of collaboration within the company: everyone knows who to go to for a particular type of expertise. Not just a desk or an email address, but an actual person. All these factors make it easier not only to take decisions but to take responsibility, too.

Kim Raaijmakers – Manager of the Compliance Office

In 2022, we found evidence that clients appreciated the improvements we’ve made to our digital systems, and that personal contact became more important than ever in times of crisis. When the war in Ukraine broke out, our bankers spent the first few weeks in conversations with their clients. That’s one of the reasons we’ve maintained high satisfaction ratings even during a huge market downturn.

For our private clients, the fact that we have specialist knowledge is crucial. The more money you have, the more complex your financial situation, and the more important it is to have specialist advisers to make you feel confident and understood. Moreover, we’re extremely focused on improving the client experience: from the top level to the bottom, and from the back office to the front office, I’ve never worked for a company that’s so specialised in client-centricity.

Stefan Philippart – Marketing Intelligence Specialist

Through an off-site programme called The Gift, I realised that the only thing holding me back was my own limiting beliefs. I’m not just a process person – I’m a people person. At Van Lanschot Kempen, we pride ourselves on the personal touch we offer our clients. And in the stewardship space that I work in, that translates into the attentive listening we do when a fiduciary client comes to us with their goals. But I’d missed that entirely at the level of my interpersonal relationships with colleagues – which is where it matters most.

Suddenly, I realised that everyone has their own stories and everyone craves that human connection. I started seeing the warmth between colleagues in meetings. I’m no longer afraid to laugh or to show my vulnerability. And far from being a drawback, connecting to the personal is what allows me to do my job to the best of my ability.

Eszter Vitorino – Lead Expert, Sustainability Advisory

Since the 2008 financial crisis, our industry has become increasingly regulated (whether financial, investor protection or sustainability regulations) and the sheer scope of the services we offer and the breadth of the jurisdictions we cover make for a complex regulatory environment. This complexity requires legal advisers like me to turn our specialised regulatory focus into something practical that enables the business to make things simple for clients.

In 2022, we were involved in a significant life sciences transaction. Van Lanschot Kempen is advising European Biotech Acquisition Corp, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) listed on Nasdaq, on its merger with biopharmaceutical company Oculis. The transaction was announced in 2022 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2023, subject to various approvals. It’s a transaction I was proud to be involved in because there were various regulatory changes in relation to SPACs in the US, and we were able to offer advice on how to navigate them and enable the client to complete the deal successfully.

Johnathan Leibbrandt – Lead Expert, Legal

Recently, with the Covid crisis and the war in Ukraine, we’ve seen real-world events have an impact on our clients’ behaviour, even if that wasn’t immediately apparent in the data. So we sat down with all the relevant stakeholders and figured out a way to incorporate this new reality into our credit risk models.

What I really like about my job at Van Lanschot Kempen, especially compared with larger companies, is that I have plenty of freedom and opportunity to try new things. From day one, I was given a lot of responsibility for our models and a lot of contact with our stakeholders – whether that’s the Finance department, senior managers, our regulator De Nederlandsche Bank or our auditors PwC. The company really values entrepreneurial spirit: no matter what level you’re at in the company, you’re encouraged to put forward innovative ideas and you don’t have to be afraid of those ideas being shot down.

Alexander Schmitt – Quantitative Expert, Risk Management